1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical waveguide, an optical waveguide device, an electro-optical apparatus and an electronic apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-169816, filed Jun. 13, 2003, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, electroluminescent panels (ELPs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and liquid crystal display devices (LCDs) and the like have been utilized as planar display devices. In addition, as is shown, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 5-100246, techniques utilized for optical signal transmission has been investigated, in order to eliminate signal delay and the like which accompanies increase in the size and increase in the display capability of these flat display devices.
Furthermore, in recent years, due to miniaturization of the internal structure of integrated circuits, the operating speed of the CPUs of computers has progressively increased. However, a bottleneck has arisen with regard to the processing speed of computers, due to the fact that a bound has almost been reached in the signal transmission speed over the bus which connects the CPU and the peripheral devices such as storage devices. If it were to be possible to perform signal transmission over such a bus using optical signals, it would become possible remarkably to increase the limits upon the processing speed of computers.
In addition, in order to transmit data using optical signals, a light transmission device is required which transmits an optical signal which has been emitted from a light source to a predetermined location, so that it can be inputted into a light reception element or the like. In a prior art as types of such light transmission device, there is a technique which takes advantage of an optical fiber, and there is a technique which takes advantage of an optical waveguide which is formed upon a substrate.
However, if an optical fiber is taken advantage of as a light transmission device, the task of connecting together the various optical components such as a light emitting element and a light reception element and so on becomes complicated, and the problem arises that, along with the manufacture of the device becoming very costly and taking a long time, it becomes difficult to make this light transmission device compact.
In contrast, it has been considered to simplify the connection together of the light transmission medium and the various optical components such as a light emitting element and a light reception element and so on by taking advantage of an optical waveguide formed upon a substrate. However, a light transmission device which utilizes an optical waveguide has not yet been implemented, for which its miniaturization and facilitation of construction have progressed as far as making it conceivably possible to use this light transmission device in a flat display device or a computer or the like. In particular, the implementation of techniques for controlling the formation of such an optical waveguide, including its line width, easily and moreover at high accuracy have been inadequate.
The present invention has been conceived in the light of the above described circumstances, and its objective is to provide an optical waveguide, an optical waveguide device, an electro-optical apparatus, and an electronic apparatus, which can control the shape, including the line width, of an optical waveguide easily and moreover at high accuracy.